

The EI Podcast
Engelsberg Ideas
The EI Podcast brings you weekly conversations and audio essays from leading writers, thinkers and historians. Hosted by Alastair Benn and Paul Lay. Find the EI Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or search The EI Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
Episodes
Mentioned books

May 20, 2021 • 19min
25: Clive Aslet: The changing fate of the English country house
Amid the tumult of the 1970s, it appeared the traditional country house had gone into irreversible decline - but it was too early to write it off. Read by Leighton Pugh.https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/upstairs-downstairs-demolished-the-changing-fate-of-the-english-country-house/Credit: The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images

May 6, 2021 • 22min
23: Helen Thompson: Geopolitics of a pandemic
The Covid-19 crisis has accentuated all the geopolitical fault lines of the past decade. Read by Leighton Pugh.https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/geopolitics-pandemic-geopolitical-conflict/Credit: Adobe Stock

Apr 29, 2021 • 14min
21: Philip Bobbitt: A government of laws
The constitutional order is changing as citizens become alienated and demand more say. Americans must take care that their habits of law are not swept away. Read by Leighton Pugh.https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/a-government-of-laws/Credit: REUTERS / Alamy Stock Photo

Apr 22, 2021 • 22min
20: Vanessa Harding: Remembering London's last Great Plague
London's response to its last plague epidemic involved close collaboration between crown, City and parish. Read by Leighton Pugh.https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/living-with-the-great-plague-of-1665/Credit: Culture Club / Getty Images

Apr 13, 2021 • 15min
19: Johan Hakelius: John Hughes and the making and unmaking of the American Dream
The films of John Hughes updated the American Dream for a new generation, and his complex legacy helps us understand what went so wrong. Read by Leighton Pugh.https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/john-hughes-and-the-making-and-unmaking-of-the-american-dream/Credit: CBS via Getty Images

Apr 8, 2021 • 48min
18: Iskander Rehman: Why applied history matters
Forget the seduction of grand theories and presentist moral judgments. To learn the lessons of the past, the great foreign policy analysts of our age must rediscover the art of historical discernment. Read by Leighton Pugh.https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-case-for-applied-history/Credit: BLM Collection / Alamy Stock Photo

Mar 26, 2021 • 23min
16: Gillian Clark: Survival lessons from Ancient Rome
The Romans have so much to teach us about what it means to live in a society in crisis. Read by Leighton Pugh.https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/survival-lessons-from-ancient-rome/Credit: Thomas Cole / Public domain

Mar 19, 2021 • 21min
15: Peter Frankopan: This crisis has the capacity to be apocalyptic
Covid-19 heralds the end of our interconnected world. We'll need wise leaders to navigate what comes next. Read by Leighton Pugh.https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/this-crisis-has-the-capacity-to-be-apocalyptic/Credit: Getty Images

Jan 22, 2021 • 53min
12: Can America lead again?
Iain Martin with guests Sir Nigel Sheinwald, Professor Joseph Nye, Karin von Hippel and Tom McTague on the foreign policy change facing the Biden administration

Dec 19, 2020 • 38min
11: GCHQ – John Ferris on the official history
Mattias Hessérus is in conversation with John Ferris, the historian 'behind the enigma' of Britain's signals intelligence agency.


